 Let's seal the breakfast and plus TV Africa, and we have Nika Gule joining us this morning. Nika, it's good to have you join us. Good morning. Happy New Year, my son, and happy New Year to our viewers. Yes, happy New Year Nika Gule. Thank you so much for being with us all through 2022 and also continuing with us in 2023. It's my pleasure. Well, let's take a look at the punch newspaper for all the press, or off the press, I beg your pardon. That's what we're starting off with this morning. President Shalpo O'Seeban Obasanjo and Dorsis Obi as Atiku, Tunibu Camp's protest. That's the former president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Lushegun Obasanjo. And Dorsis Obi as Atiku, Tunibu Camp's protest. Obi ahead of others in terms of knowledge, discipline, vitality, character. That's what the former president is saying. Ex-presidents there in Nigeria became hell on earth under Buhari's administration and caused APC law. Obasanjo and Dorsis' endorsement, what less, is a political pepper wait. APC and PDP is saying. I mean, it's just normal to put all of that out. NCDC, emergency team meets over China COVID-19 surge. Okay. Six million meters for deployment before June. That's what the federal government is saying. Scarcity, federal government plans, inspection of fuel station tanks. Jonathan Adeboye make 100 most reputable African lists. Jonathan Adeboye, that's the pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church and also a former president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Good luck, Jonathan. Make 100 most reputable African lists. Governor's wife welcomes first babies with gifts. That's the 40th new year. There's also a picture representation of all of that. Motorists kill five dancers during party. Ogun couple killed after crossover service. Son abducted. It's unfortunate. And that's the much we can take this morning on the punch. We turn our attention to the nation now. On the front page of the nation newspaper, former president, under fire for endorsing LP candidate. That's the Labour Party candidate or presidential candidate, if you like to put. APC, PDP, orders knocked, president. So there are several comments, but we don't have time to go through all of that comment. 18 die a new year day accident. What 2023 will bring by Adeboye or Yodekpo? Among orders, you find Gandu J. Akeridolu, bellow, drum up support for tunable. And again, you find two feet killed in military checkpoint attack by gunmen. Nigeria and top global chart as investors earned 4.45 trillion narrow gains stocks bullish in third consecutive year and AG, AUGF reports 17.877 million barrels of crude oil exported without records. Oh, wow. That's very saddening. Accuses the AGF of paying 73 billion without approval. But we'll just move away from the nation. That's the much we can take on the nation newspaper. The next paper we have now is a daily trust. The daily trust says article tunable kicks as former president, this might just be topping all of the papers this morning. Very predictable. It's a what less endorsement. APC campaign is quoted to say only the endorsement of Nigerians matter to us. The PDP saying that there's also that has a point as well. That's very important. Why I backed OB against TIKU, tunable ex-president, Olusaguna Bason, draws quoted to say says Nigeria hell and earth on the Buhari. Some people say hellish. Fuel subsidy favors the rich, more than the poor. Tunable is quoted to say social media users onshore as CBN cash withdrawal limit will cop vote buying. That's another word entirely, especially Twitter. And you find New York governor promise better delivery and preachers peace. Governors promise better deliveries and preachers peace. Uncertainty doggs PDP as presidential pose. Guards esteem. It died 22 injured in Ogun New Year road crash. NNPC operatives destroy the barrage with stolen crude oil filling station in Delta. Well, that's the much we can take. We just move away from that and we'll just turn our attention to the daily sun newspaper right here. Like I mentioned earlier on, the front page is quite predictable this morning. Presidency or Bason draw endorses Pitao B. That's for 2023, of course, which were in few more days. The elections will just be here. Right youth. Others says labor party candidate will salvage Nigeria. That's the one of the riders you find underneath the caption. Ex president endorsement worthless. Tunable is quoted to say it is his personal opinion. Artico is saying and that's also very valid. I mean strong position to win will be is so confident. And just before we move away from the daily sun newspaper, another caption says, don't be guided by your stomach pockets and choosing the next president. The bishop can orders a warning Nigerian voters. President we cannot article frustrated zoning to south east. Okay, saying that it's we cannot article that frustrated the zoning. Well, it's really interesting. I may feel his lawyer right agf and six arrests of DSS DG. Anglican primates identifies unemployment, insecurity as threat to peace and national unity. Adeboyo Olu Koeh sick prayer for Nigeria and ones of danger ahead. Rivers PDP ready for election says governor. Yes, some weekend. These are some of the headlines. You find this morning on the daily sun and just quickly acquire boom government raises teachers retirement age to 65. That's it. Let's have Nica Gule join us who's on standby once again. Thank you. Nica Gule. Thank you so much for being part of the show. Thank you. Thank you mostly. Nice to be here. Yes, please. Let's, you know, quickly show your thoughts on the one that's dominating all of the headlines this morning. The presidential elections or the presidential poll or the presidency, whatever caption is being given, the endorsement by former president or Lushaguna Basin just seems to be getting a lot of reactions from, you know, the political gladiators, especially the presidential candidates among others. What are your thoughts? Thank you very much. I expectedly President of Basin Joe is a dominant character in the Nigerian political space. So when he makes a statement, especially a weighty one, like backing one of the front running candidates in the in this year's is no longer next year in this year's presidential polls, he's going to make headline news and it's not disappointing that we have seen those headlines. I personally have my issues with President of Basin Joe. I actually think that we're unlucky to have him to run the first leg of our democratic journey this time around because I think democracy survives on strong institutions and President of Basin Joe did not do much to build strong institutions like the judiciary, the legislature and all of that. You know, sometimes I thought he was engaging in executive brigand age, so I have my issues with him on that. But on this endorsement that he has made, he has every right to do so. As a bona fide Nigerian, a senior citizen for that matter, it is within his democratic rights and freedom of choice and association to endorse one of the candidates as a presidential as his own candidate for the presidential polls. So those who are taking issues with him on that, they are absolutely very wrong. The president has every right. And now I'm not so surprised that the president has chosen the liberal candidate because politically, we know that he's not going to back his vice president, his former vice president, because he has already written off the former vice president, even in books and all other press outings that he has made. And it's also difficult that he's going to endorse Asiwaju Bola Tinibu because if you recall why he was in office as president, he had a running battle with Asiwaju to the extent that the local government funds for Legos were withheld by Obama Sanjo all through that time. And it was only President Yaradua when he came into office in 2007 that released those funds. So you can clearly see that he has political issues with the other two candidates. The only option left for him, basically, will be the third force in the front running candidate Peter Obey. So it is not all surprising that he has made that choice. But we're going to see what holds in the next few days in terms of whether this endorsement is going to have political value for Mr. Peter Obey or not. Okay, but I'd like us to look at some of the issues that have been raised. You know, because there's a lot of back and forth with whether or not the G5 is supporting the presidential aspiration of Bola Tinibu, who's the flag bearer of the AAPC, right? And some people think that it's game over. If you have these five governors supporting him, then the game is over. But that's a conversation for another time. This endorsement by a former president, Olusia Gunobar Sanjo, has been described by the AAPC campaign, be it presidential candidates, what have you, as what this? Do you think that there's any implication? Does he have any weight? According to them, it's just a pepper weight. It's just in paper. So it's a pepper thing. And it's of no significance. But I'd like to show your thought if you think this would mean translating into votes. Does he have any implication? Okay, before I say that, I'm so sorry, Merci. I'm taking this interview at the Abuja International Airport. So I'm sitting right by the road and frequently vehicles are passing that I guess they're interrupting with the interview, but we'll make the most out of it. So I don't agree that the endorsement of the former president, President Olusia Gunobar Sanjo, of the label candidate, Peter Obie, is worthless. I won't agree with that because President Olusia Gunobar Sanjo is a political heavyweight in Nigeria. I mean, he was a military head of state, and then he was a president for eight good years. He has built political structures. I mean, in his first coming in 1999, he didn't have any political structures. But within the eight years that he had the reigns of power, he has built political structures. He has followers who he has ardent followers. And there are a lot of Nigerians that listen to him as well. So for him to come up publicly to endorse Mr. Peter Obie, there are a lot of people who are going to listen to that. And they will say, well, if President Olusia Gunobar Sanjo is backing Mr. Peter Obie, that means there must be something in this Mr. Peter Obie that we're going to look at. So there is some political value. But how much of it is what is debatable? I think that there is political value, but it's not enough to change the game or treat the game in favor of Mr. Peter Obie. Mr. Peter Obie and the label party need to do a lot more work, especially at the grassroots, if they want to take the presidential post in later this year. Okay. Well, if you also look at the response, he says he's very confident of winning the election. But like you have rightly mentioned, there's a lot of work that needs to be done. Fingers across, it's important that everyone gets their PVC, especially when there are reports of uncollected PVC in different quarters, I mean, across different states of the Federation. But progressing, let's look at fuel scarcity. The federal government has plans to inspect fuel station tanks. That's a way to, you know, the issue to ensure whether the scarcity or people are holding this product. What do you make of this move by the government? A fuel scarcity is one of the most painful things in Nigeria. Very painful because messy Nigeria is one of the world's biggest producers of crude oil. And just imagine that you're thinking, you're talking about a farmer, a farmer who is one of the world's biggest producers of food stocks. The family are routinely hungry, looking for food, queuing up to get food, even with their money. They cannot see food to buy. It doesn't make any sense at all. And the reason, the singular reason messy that Nigeria has found the same in this situation is because we have four refund rates that the government have allowed to rot. Four good refund rates. Even if it is just one of those refund rates that is allowed to work to full capacity. We will not be talking about fuel subsidy. We will not be talking about fuel scarcity. The federal government will not be spending time and energy going to inspect anything. There will be a flood of petrol and other petroleum products in Nigeria. And we will even be exporting. We will even be exporting. We have an install capacity of 445,000. 445,000 liters of crude oil every day. Nigeria's internal consumption is not even up to half of that. So the reason why these refund rates aren't being allowed to work is the puzzle. And I mean, we cannot advise President Buhari again on this because he has only five months or so in office left. The person we need to now be targeting and turning our attention to is the person who is going to take the reins of power come this year. That person, whoever he is, this is the lowest-hanging fruit in Nigeria. Petrol, diesel, kerosene, all of these petroleum products. Let this person join you six months, six months to fix the refund rates. And they can fix these refund rates either by putting money in there by themselves or leasing the refund rates out or selling them out outrightly. And within six months, the refund rates will be sorted. And once they are sorted, we will no longer be talking about fuel scarcity. We will not be talking about fuel subsidy. Nobody will be suffering overnight, keying up in Nigeria to buy petrol. This is a job for the next government. Your very first job. It brings us to another conversation that's on the punch newspaper that over 17.877 million barrels of crude oil were exported between 2016 and 2020 without proper documentation. That's under nation, by the way, without proper documentation. In other words, they were not recorded. There's no record as regards this transaction. Now, what do you make of this, especially for an administration that's big on transparency? Right? As one of it, the fight against corruption. How do you export 17.87 million barrels of crude oil between the period of 2016 when you have this government in power to 2020 without record? It is shameful. It is very shameful because Nigeria is a criminal enterprise. If Nigeria was not so blessed by God to be this strong, the way Nigeria is being looted, Nigeria would have no longer be existing today. Nigeria is existing miraculously, I would say. Look, when we produce crude oil, a chunk of it is stolen, first and foremost, a chunk of it is stolen. And then the one that is sold a chunk of it cannot be accounted for. These things have been there for a long time. Even the former central bank governor, San Jose, he said this thing, that about 20 billion dollars worth of crude oil process cannot be traced. Today, nobody has done anything about that. So this thing is that President Buhari, like you rightly said, campaigned on a tripod of objectives. One, corruption, two, economy, three, security. And none of this has he delivered. Absolutely nothing. So as a former petroleum minister himself, you expect President Buhari to understand the dynamics of the industry. President Buhari? He's also said the current petroleum minister that hasn't changed. The current petroleum minister as well. So if you take off from his experience, as a former petroleum minister in Nigeria, when the petroleum industry was bourgeois, and now that he's even the petroleum minister, he is the person who should understand the ins and outs of that industry, who should understand everything. That is the person that should be very difficult to deceive when it comes to the petroleum industry. But he has decided not to do anything. And criminality in the industry, high level criminality. In all facets, we just spoke about a few subsidies. That is petroleum industry. And now we talk about a few thefts. And now I mean crude oil thefts. And now we're talking about even the one that is being sold. There are no records. It doesn't make sense. But President Buhari is spending eight years. We can't talk about him again. We have to turn it. And that person must seize the moment. That person must stand up for Nigeria and Nigerians. That person must take back our oil industry. And that person would have to deliver value to Nigeria because we talk about government going to borrow. That there is no money. How can government be going to borrow that there is no money? And the same government is aligned the major source of our revenue to be looted without anything being done about it. That precedent in 2009, in this in May 2023, we have to take the very first step of arresting. Arresting the rocks in the petroleum industry and giving value back to Nigerians. No, but you know, this already a lot of people will say still in the, you know, in the realm of accusation, it's an allegation until it's been proven guilty by a court of competence, jurisdiction. But according to those reporters, while still on the nation newspaper, there's also an accusation that's been made off the attorney general of the fed federation of paying 73 billion Naira without approval. Now in all of this, if we say that this is anything to go by, there's always a statement that there's no smoke without fire. And if it's anything to go by, you're saying that we should, you know, just forget about all of this that has happened, you know, in the oil sector, all of the corruption that's going on. We've had of cases of oil thefts. Now they're also issue of, you know, exporting the product without also record is another dimension of corruption entirely. So, you know, let's fold the M's and allow all of this pass. Where lies justice? Where lies, you know, the rule of restitution? You know, what happens now? Should we just move away and focus on the next administration? Let me make myself clear. I am in no way saying that the road that has happened in the petroleum industry should be swept under the carpet of forgotten or nothing to be done about it. The only thing I'm saying is that President Buhari for the past eight years, who have been advising him, who have been talking about this thing, every time we give him all that is needed, he has been done anything about it. And if the president in eight years hasn't done anything about the petroleum industry and the criminality that exists in there, there is no against saying that he's going to do anything in the remaining five months. I have no hope. And so, our focus is on the next administration. And the next administration the very first thing that the president will do when he takes office in May is to arrest the road in the petroleum industry, is to immediately constitute a team of auditors that are going to dive into that industry and unravel, you know, unmask and bring that dose who have pinned Nigeria down in poverty over the years. Because let me tell you one thing, if President Buhari was geared to do anything about this, a major report like this comes out, a major report about criminality in the industry comes out, you expect an instant reaction from the president. The president should summon the petroleum minister this morning to his office, summon all those who are players in the industry. The person should summon himself. That's what it should be. He himself, bring himself and every operator into the industry and ask questions and say, hey, why, what am I hearing? Is this in truth? I need to investigate this. Yeah, don't nothing. Even when we heard that over one million barrels of crude oil is being stolen every day as produced, the president has not done anything. So let's see. Look, we cannot continue beating the debtors. President Buhari is not it as far as the oil industry is concerned and fighting corruption. So this is why I'm saying our attention should be shifted to the next administration who we have to do a clinical surgery of the oil industry and all the monies that have been stolen must be returned back to Nigeria's because the poverty we're experiencing. Imagine all these monies we committed into infrastructure, into education, into healthcare, into everything that Nigeria needs with our quality of life to improve. Who would have made much more progress than we are now? So that's what needs to be done. The next administration, we definitely have to carry out a full foreign security of this industry and bring out the looters and they will return the money. Okay, then just quickly as we close the conversation down is still this is on the Daily Sun newspaper. They're consent by, you know, the church can among orders and the bishop asking that electorate should be guided, not by their stomach or, you know, pockets in terms of choosing the next president. But do you think that we can do away with these factors in the 2023 elections? Well, it's going to be difficult to do away with stomach infrastructure, vote selling and all of that in 2023 because the poverty in the land is so much that a lot of people will be tempted with 500 error to say their votes. But what the church is doing is right. The church civil society eminent Nigerians, everybody who love this country should stand up and say these things that look, it should be about a candidate. It shouldn't even be about a party. You can vote a president in a different party, a governor in a different party and the assembly member in a different party. Just look at the candidates themselves because you know what is happening here is that the elite in Nigeria for a long time have taken their eyes off the board of politics. Majority of them don't even have a good number of them, don't even have voters card. Some of them have voters card but they don't vote. But there is a resurgence of hope that people are now beginning to take interest in the political affairs of the country. And without politics, look, without getting the politics right, without getting leadership recruitment right, nothing is going to happen in this country. We can just see this country continue to slide like this for the next four years again. So what the church is doing is applauded and they need to do more. And another advice I want to give to Nigerians who did not take part in the voter registration is that yes, you took your eyes off the board, you didn't register to vote, but you can still mobilize those who can vote to go out to vote. You know, in America, I'll give you the example of the American presidential election, the last one. Donald Trump pulled 74 million votes. That's a lot of votes. Those are people that no matter what you do, they will vote Donald Trump. But the other people went and gathered 81 million votes and they defeated Donald Trump. So even though we have vote buyers, we have vote sellers and all of that, good people should step in and overwhelm them so that if in a polling unit about 100 people sold their votes, let there be 200 people who will not say they have vote and vote the right candidate. They will still win this election and will take our country back. Well, Nika Gule, thank you so much for making our time to be with us this morning and be on the show that off the press, we look forward to having you sharing more of your thoughts on some national issues. Thank you very much, Messi. I always have to add about then the INEC is not just putting voter cards. Those who register, please go and collect your voter card. We must take Nigeria back. Alright, as much as that's also very valid, it's also important that you know, INEC itself makes it very seamless and not difficult for the people to get their cards so they are able to be part of the elections sometime in February. That's the size of it this morning on off the press. We take a break when we return. We'll be looking at, you know, the president or this administration's report card. Some of the achievement has been listed by the president, which was contained in his New Year message. Please stay with us.